BAND BIOGRAPHY

Often confused with the famous breakfast treat, which is often confused as a breakfast “cookie”, Stelladeora also meaning “Star of Gold”, has been working very hard to prove themselves past this popular misnomer. They actually take their name from a rarely used alias of the popular botanical beauty also known as the Day Lily. Front woman Justina Carubia, met guitarist Avinash Patel in 2008, when a mutual friend of theirs had organized for a group of friends to check out an Envy on the Coast concert at the Highline Ballroom in NYC. With Envy on the rise of the indie music scene, this event had proved to be life changing for both, who found the show to be unbelievably inspiring. From that point on, Avi would bring his guitar to little gatherings in their friend’s basement, and Justina would provide the vocals. They would play everything from Incubus, to Paramore, to even random jams encouraged by the occasional drunken djembe accompaniment.

In the meantime, Justina had been pursuing a solo music career since she picked up the guitar and songwriting in 2001. She pursued the pop rock singer-songwriter route, making her own mark in the Asbury Park music scene in New Jersey. She has played everywhere from The Saint , to the Wonder Bar and The Stone Pony. Broadening her tour circuit, she expanded to NYC with places such as The Bitter End, CBGB’s Gallery and Main Stage, and Arlene’s Grocery. She eventually made it to morning television on Philadelphia’s 10! Show in the fall of 2008. At this point, she had 2 self released EPs under her belt (Break of Day 2005, Last One Standing 2007) but was still not able to afford to do music full time. She was a receptionist by day, aspiring rock star by nights and weekends.

Avi started playing guitar in the summer of 2000, when he was going to be a sophomore in high school. He looked to bands like Incubus and Dream Theater for inspiration when shaping his own sound. He idolized Incubus guitarist, Mike Einziger. “ The guitar riffs that Einziger came up with were just mindblowing to me”, Avi says. “ I thought all of the different sounds he could make with his pedals were so amazing, it drove me to try and make a mini version of his rig with a delay, phaser, flanger.“ Avi eventually formed a project with his buddies in 2007 , called Between the Black and White. The project eventually faded out in the fall of 2008 ,due to lack of persistance.

It was at this point that Justina and Avi had come together to jam for the first time on what would be original material. They worked on an instrumental guitar arrangement called "The Chase”, which Avi had written previously. The song eventually went nowhere the first time they had jammed on it.

Flustered and discouraged with her own solo career, Justina decided to pack her bags and try out the LA music scene in March of 2009. She had played many singer-songwriter gatherings, and major label showcases, and had tried to find her niche in the west coast music scene. She states, “ I felt like the music scene in LA is so superficial, I have never seen someone actually lip sync on a stage before I went to a major label showcase in Beverly Hills. If this was what the term "singer- songwriter” was coming to, in order to be recognized, then I knew I needed to find another route with my music”. She ultimately decided to head back East after 5 months.

In July of 2009, Justina and Avi decided to give the jamming thing another try. They had jammed on 3 different loosely arranged songs that night. Justina recorded the instrumental jam session on her laptop and wrote lyrics to all 3 arrangements the next day. The songs were now called “Clockwork”, “Magnetic Poetry”, and “Free Will”. Justina had shown Avi the songs, and he couldn’t believe what she had done with his instrumental compositions. He remembers thinking,“ Wow, this sounds sick, I think this could actually go somewhere.“ They played their first show together as a duo, at a canned food drive in their hometown of South Plainfield, NJ. They wrote a couple more songs following this show, but ultimately put the project on hiatus for the next winter.

Bored with the lack of creativity on both of the duo’s parts, Justina decided to start up a fun, but short lived web show titled "The Justina and Avi Show”. This show ran through May and some of June 2010. On this show, the duo would play the songs they wrote together, along with any requests their viewers would have. Their original material on the show seemed to peak interest with their viewers so they set out to record the rock opera inspired conceptual piece titled, “Magnetic Poetry”, which they ended up releasing as a single. It has already been played on local radio stations in NYC & NJ, and has been placed on the blooming web series titled “Hollywood Girl”. They decided to finish up their lineup with bass and drums to make their sound more complete. With the addition of bassist Ryan Piet, the concept had started to flourish, as he and Justina started brainstorming storylines. “Magnetic Poetry” was followed up with the release of a 4 page comic book excerpt, which explains the story behind the song (illustrated by Chris V). They went through a few temporary drummers, before they found the right fit, Mike Lyon, at the end of winter 2011.

Stelladeora wasted no time and booked their first local summer tour (2011) hitting notable venues throughout New Jersey! They then hit the recording studio in late summer, with Michael Lisa (of the band GOLD), to record their first EP as a band. They worked on the masterpiece the remainder of the summer, and Ryan Wilson parted ways with the band in the fall of 2011. After a brief winter hiatus, Neil Brown came on board to play bass for the band in the Spring of 2012. About a year later, in July of 2013, Steve Hannon contacted the band after finding them on BandMix.com, and they started jamming shortly after. After about 2 months of jamming with the band, they asked him to officially jump on board. He has been with the band since!They have so far released their debut EP “A Dosage From Delusional” in 2012, and have recently started pre production on brand new songs! They are hopeful for their first full length! No release dates are known at this time.

Keep your eyes peeled, and plan on seeing a lot more from this up and coming, under the radar band! Please help us spread the music around to all of your friends, and also keep up to date with Stelladeora news!!!